tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60535339361753690252018-03-08T06:30:15.811-08:00elyseb2010humanitiesElyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-58064687505081621712011-05-16T09:08:00.000-07:002011-05-16T09:08:05.460-07:00iMedia: Julian SmithA couple of days ago my friend Trent introduced me to one of the funniest movie producers I have ever experienced. His humor is kind of dull and dry but it makes you laugh like none other. The way that Julian angles the camera and puts people right in the middle of a shot makes adds to the hilarity of the video. He also uses obviousness as a tool in most of his videos to make things more funny because most people like to laugh at people's ignorance or stupidity. One of the funniest videos I've watched by him (he has about 20 that I've see on YouTube) is called Red Eye Flashes Twice. It is about a man who gets very very angry when people move on the second flash when a camera's "red eye avoidance" feature is turned on. One of the things that makes this video better and better every time you watch it is that you don't notice until you have seen it a couple times that there is subtext throughout some of the video. When you realize that and pause it every time you see the subtext the things he says add to the experience of the video so much. Here watch for yourself:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrmZriAHxhI">Julian Smith: Red Eye Flashes Twice</a><br /><br /><br />I believe that these types of video and comedy styles show how our culture is movie away from the loud annoying America and into the plain old stupid America. Or maybe it shows our intelligence because we find people being stupid funny. But if we were more intelligent then maybe we would think it was funny if people could not solve difficult math equations or scientific problems. Maybe our world will rise to that level someday but for right now, this is pure funniness (in my perspective). I also think that these videos are geared more toward the 15-30 generation right now. People older or younger probably would not understand the humor because the humor of their generation is much different. Julian Smith shows that comedy can come from the simplest things and I enjoy that.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-48007450800706836822011-05-08T21:15:00.000-07:002011-05-08T21:15:08.518-07:00An Inconvenient Truth: There are not 25 hours in a dayWhen choosing an inconvenient truth to focus on I thought about choosing something about how all humans are judgmental and how that is a natural instinct in humans. Well that issue does bother me a lot, but one that has seemed to be a problem for me lately is time. Not just how much time there is in a day, but how much time we all have until certain things happen; we have about 3 months until college, 4 years until freedom.. or until crash and burn? With so much changing in my life and the lives of my peers right now, I feel like time is slipping through my fingers. I only have so many more family dinners until I will have to wait months to just sit down at a table with my whole family. I only have a couple more months to go over to my boyfriend's house whenever I want, and then who know what will happen to us when I am in college? I always thought that I would be ready for this change, running head on into it, embracing it. But now that it is finally here I cannot help but think about all of the things I need to do before my life gets ahead of me.<br /><br />One of the scariest parts about this change is that no matter what there will be some people I have made connections with in high school that I will never talk to again after we walk across the stage. Why does life work that way? Why do we make connections with people that we will not have the will power to care about in the future? In 30 years, how will I know if the guy I made jokes with in math class for the past 3 months with has a family or has moved to Africa?<br /><br />I know that I should accept that this is just how life is and that I will have a great life ahead of me and all of that. But I cannot help but think that there has to be some way to make better use of the little time we have left before certain events. I wish there was some type of pause button that we could have for ourselves so the amount of time thinking about what we want to do isn't wasted from the time we have to do them.<br /><br />Of course we all have the inevitable event of death that time will always be too short for. But sometimes I think that if only there were 25 hours in a day, 8 days in a week, 366 days in a year. If only there was just a little bit more time I would actually be able to accomplish what I would be able to.<br /><br />Since there is no changing the phenomena of time, I will cope with it eventually. I feel like sometime in my mid 50s I will feel accomplished about something which will let me know that time was finally on my side. But for now I will just make the most of the time I have because the inconvenient truth is, there are not 25 hours in a day.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-37804015743969221562011-05-05T21:24:00.000-07:002011-05-05T21:24:26.912-07:00Blogging AroundFirst I commented on one of Alex's blog posts. She talks about how fabulous the TED presentations have been and how interesting it is to see how people interpret their videos. I can't wait to see the rest of our TED presentations. Here is my response-<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">AL! i completely agree with what both you and hal said about the TED presentations. It is so interesting to hear about all of these new things that are happening to sustain our futures. It is also so weird to know that people actually think of those things! It's really interesting hearing our peer's perspective about their own TED presentation and weird to think about how people interpret things differently. I personally have my TED presentation next tuesday and I'm nervous because i don't know if anyone will care about what my TED presenter talks about because it is all about science and how science will lead to our survival. But i think it is really important so that's all that matters right?? I wish you guys were in my class so i could see your smiling faces while i was presenting!</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Next, I commented on Hallie's blog post! She talked about how Oprah can brighten her day even when it seemed like it was so down in the dumps. Hallie loves Oprah so much and I think she is an amazing role model for any powerful woman to have (Just like Hallie!) Here is my response-</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #616161; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So i was just bloggin around and I saw that Al had this as one of the ones she commented on and i started reading it and i was like.. oh my god HAL+OPRAH=LOVE! so i knew i had to read it :) I feel like throughout this year I have realized so much more that everyone has their own unique qualities and it doesn't necessarily make them weird it actually more makes them normal because EVERYONE has something a little odd about them. There is no normal. Normalcy is like a paradox! I love that Oprah points out people's special qualities and you know what the greatest thing is?! Hal does that too! Hallie always points out the best things about people and makes people feel so special just like Oprah does! Hallie livens up so many people's lives just like Oprah does hers! Love you hal!</span></span></span>Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-8763873232387051992011-04-25T17:19:00.000-07:002011-04-25T17:19:55.156-07:00Best Of The Week: Do you mind? ApologiesOne of the best things that has happened to me this week in general (not just because it is from humanities class) was a couple of our "Do you mind" topics. Do you mind is an assignment that we have at the beginning of every class. It is an insightful question that we have to force ourselves to think about and answer within the time allotted. Some of the best things about these questions are that they usually make you think about things you would not have thought about without being asked them by Mr. Allen and that since we are only given a short amount of time you usually do not over analyze what you are going to say and just say the first thing that comes to mind.&nbsp;<div><br /></div><div>Specifically this week though, we had two consecutive questions that really made my head spin. The first one was about who you would apologize to if you had the chance. I said that i would apologize to my brother because even though he has a mental disability and I am completely aware of that I still cannot handle when he does things wrong. One of my biggest flaws is my lack of patience and I learned this by answering this do you mind question.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>The second one was about who you would like an apology from. This is a selfish kind of question. These kinds of questions are always the hardest and seem to be the hardest for most people because when you look around everyone is looking up and thinking very hard about what they are going to say. I &nbsp;finally came up with the answer of my best friend Leah for many different reasons. Even though she is one of the closest people to me in my life I think that that makes them a lot more susceptible to giving you pain.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>It is so interesting that a class that can be so dull sometimes (sorry Mr. Allen it's just the truth) can also be so inspirational. I hope that I do not stop asking myself these questions after I am done with high school.&nbsp;</div>Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-63966526834212742372011-04-23T13:32:00.000-07:002011-04-23T13:32:46.878-07:00Bloggin' AroundFirst I responded to Hana's blog. She wrote about the issue of Don't ask don't tell and how Obama is trying to abolish this crime of discrimination.<br /><br />"I completely agree with both you and Alex on this issue. It is so important to be more accepting in our culture today because without acceptance we cannot move forward. <br /><br />This is why I am so glad that they are making the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy less of a taboo and more accepted within our culture. I cannot wait until the day that everyone in our world can be accepted for who they are and their beliefs instead of being criticized for something they may not even be able to change such as their sexual preference. Everyone should feel safe in their own skin and as Hana said, 'help create change'. It is up to us to make a difference in our world now. If we wait much longer we might not be able to get very far in the future."<br /><br />Then I posted on Rayn's blog when she talked about the QE essay and how beneficial it was to our creative writing.<br /><br />"I completely agree!! I hate five paragraph essays because they are so restricting and limit the amount of creativity you can show off. I personally am very creative and hate structure and my whole life I have had so much structure in English and finally we were able to just let loose and write whatever we wanted.<br /><br />Just like Rayn I found that I could finally learn how to write freely and let loose which at first was kind of hard because I had not been doing it for so long. <br /><br />I wish that we could do more assignments like the QE essay because I feel as though the rest of the year's essays were more restricting and I do not know a time in life that writing a five paragraph essay will be useful for me."Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-36710968290103469742011-03-14T09:29:00.000-07:002011-03-14T09:29:33.031-07:00Final Blog- Literature CirclesAfter reading Amy's blog about <em>The Post American World </em>and discussing with her during one of our lit circle meetings, it is obvious that our books have very similar concepts. Both of our books talk about how much the world is changing and how our society is supposed to cope with that change. In the blog that she posted she talks about how the section she read talked about how other countries are gaining more power with their new and innovative ideas. This could be directly correlated to how the American mind is not developing fast enough&nbsp;for our rapidly developing nation/world. Many people are stuck in a 20th century rut when the 21st century is booming with industrialization and because some other countries are just now getting their head start into the modern world, they almost have a leg up because their ideas are new and innovative and America is stuck in the past because our 'political mind's are stuck in the past! Such a great correlation! <br /><br />Amy says that the author of her book states that America needs to "build broad rules, not narrow interests" (Zarakria 238). This concept matches up perfectly with Lakoff's concept that the people that will go the furthest in life in the 21st century are those people that are able to grasp the more 'out of the box' concepts of life not the people that are stuck on things that everyone already knows and understand. Building broad rules is very similar making sure you are an 'out of the box' thinker and that you are able to expand your limits to be successful in the 21st century. Amy says that her book talks about how the world is expanding in complexity. Lakoff in my book speaks about how the political mind is expanding exponentially in complexity and that makes me wonder if they are expanding at the same rate or is the American political mind is behind the rest of the world's expansion.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-1371952972634715532011-03-14T09:05:00.001-07:002011-03-14T09:05:22.342-07:00Literature Circle Response: Meeting Two<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Summary: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The section that we just read is extremely dense with information. Almost every 10 pages Lakoff makes a different point about how the American ‘mind’ has developed throughout the 20th/21st centuries. I put “mind” in quotes because I have learned that his interpretation of the mind means many different things. In some ways he means the more physical, cognitive sense of the mind with his references to biological changes the mind seems to have gone through since the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup> century such as biconceptualism – how the mind unconsciously changes its view on the world very easily based on the situation the person is in (i.e. Saturday night partying and Sunday morning mass- the same person can do both but does not think about the same things or have the same type of values while doing both). This is just one of the seven different concepts about how the mind has developed that Lakoff talks about in this one section of reading. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Major Claim: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>“[There are].. two versions of a family- a strict father family that mapped onto pure conservative politics, and a nurturant parent family that mapped onto pure progressive politics” (Lakoff<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>77).</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Response: <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When I first started reading this portion of the book I was a little taken aback. I did not agree that family life/upbringing was so black and white. But as I read on I realized that Lakoff was trying to break the status quo, not create it. He was saying that there were two inevitable ways that family ideals always went and because the two choices of family values that Lakoff gave were so diverse yet broad, his claim actually does work. He is trying to say that instead of what most people think- that every family is different because all people are different and thus have different problems/values- that there is a much deeper part to the family make up that can be categorized into these two ideas, making every family similar no matter how different they want to be. I really like how Lakoff took a risk by making this claim because (as he references on page 79) most people would disagree that something like family values can be “simplified” so much. </span></div>Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-9862908293019866932011-03-07T22:08:00.001-08:002011-03-07T22:08:25.092-08:00Captured Thought: Singing on Pitch<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Last week was Musical tryouts. Somewhere around 150 people tried out and the final cast list contains around 75. Luckily, I was one of the 75 but unfortunately I wish I had this profound thought BEFORE I had my audition. I realized the night after callbacks that there is really nothing to singing if you think about it hard enough. It is completely mind over matter. Everyone has the same vocal chords and while, yes, some people have a natural talent to have a good voice, in all reality you can produce any sound that is within your range quite easily if you just think about it. If you think you are going to be sharp, you probably will be. If you think about your voice cracking or being too meek, it inevitably will be because without confidence your voice cannot do as well as you just hope it will. By putting your mind into it, you can completely change the outcome of an audition, or even just a performance. It makes me wonder what other amazing things I could do if I just set my mind to it. Maybe people actually can fly? Maybe nobody has ever actually thought hard enough to make it happen? Or maybe it just can't? How will we ever really know?!</span>Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-21863063323957543032011-01-30T19:26:00.000-08:002011-01-30T19:26:48.685-08:00Connection: Einstein's Dream and My BrotherThe novel <i>Einstein's Dream </i>by Alan Lightman constantly reminds me of my brother, Mitchell. I am learning that Albert Einstein is a lot like my brother. With all of his quirks and habits such as a messy desk and working late into the night, they are very similar.<br /><br />Einstein has a problem when it comes to interacting with other people and being social. My brother is horrible with socializing and knowing how to interact appropriately with others.<br /><br />Einstein is very bright and my brother is basically a genius. He always thinks of the little things that people would not usually think about. But the physical and mental things that my brother does is not the only thing about this novel that reminds me about him; the way that the author writes also has a strange connection with my older brother. The way the author thinks and writes reminds me of my brother so much. The fact that you know all of those details that a lot of people would leave out reminds me of how my brother seems to look at things in a different way and is always pointing out the details that no one else would ever notice.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-20663659106960611992010-11-05T18:37:00.000-07:002010-11-05T18:37:58.148-07:00Connections: Sophie's World and College VisitsThere is a certain mindset you have to put yourself in while on college visits. I was able to find the perfect mindset while reading the novel Sophie's World in humanities class. Sophie is an adventurous existential thinker that does not let things get in the way of her looking at the broad picture of things. Sometimes, when I try new things or am in new places I forget to keep an open mind and know that not everything has to be in the perfect set out order that I have them. <br /><br />When keeping an open mind, it was easier for me to look at the qualities of each college and know my likes and dislikes for it. I was able to see myself walking around campus, living in the dorms, and going to class at any particular college I just happened to be at. By being able to put myself in the students shoes I was able to make a well informed decision about whether I wanted to go there or not. <br /><br />In the novel, Sophie has a very open mind. She is able to ask hard questions about herself that a young girl is not usually able to answer or even question. Just like Sophie, on my college visits I made sure I asked myself the hard questions like, "can I really see myself living here?" or, "would this place really be conducive to my future and my goals as a powerful woman?" through these questions, I am able to learn a lot about myself and what I want in the coming years for my future. Just like Sophie, I want to ask myself the hard questions so that later in life I won't regret not knowing the answer.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-56348503418793062662010-11-01T20:44:00.000-07:002010-11-01T20:44:57.973-07:00iMedia: YouTube/The Girl Effect<a href="http://www.girleffect.org/share/the-big-picture/the-girl-effect-ticking-clock?sms_ss=facebook&amp;at_xt=4ccf83f6ea3eac79%2C0">The Girl Effect: Video</a><br /><br />The power of&nbsp;YouTube, is so much more&nbsp;important than it has ever been. Through media, we can make a difference, spread awareness, show people that there is something we can do to improve the value of life. The power of video, can reach the heart. It can help people visualize what a problem is and do something about it.<br /><br />I believe that by using media that people around the world utilize every day, we have the power to change the world. This video speaks for itself and me talking about it gives it no justice, you just really have to watch it. I dare you to not want to make a difference and give a girl a better life by the end of it. <br /><br />The power of media is immense. It is extensive in all ways. I am not going to shut down the human race by saying that we do not utilize media enough because truthfully we do. But I will say that I feel like all the junk we put out in the media needs to go away. There are more important things such as 'The Girl Effect' and other organizations that deserve more recognition than the dirty gossip and backstabbing that the media is being used for now. <br /><br />The Girl Effect proves that a powerful message or video can make a difference.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-77978921444297246982010-10-24T23:02:00.000-07:002010-10-24T23:02:11.027-07:00Carry it Forward: Born into BrothelsThis past week we have been watching the documentary <i>Born Into Brothels </i>in humanities class. I can honestly say that it is one of the most upsetting movies I have every watched in my life. And the fact that it is a complete documentary and that everything in it is real makes it even harder to watch.<br /><br />Throughout the movie you meet a group of young kids that live in the brothels of the red light district. A woman comes to teach them photography so they might have a chance of getting out of the horrible future plans they have set for them. It is so disturbing that at the age of thirteen a girl who has just started puberty would be put on the line to be sold as a prostitute. And the saddest part is that this is the only life they know. They do not know that there are other choices and ways to get out. But on the other hand it would be so hard for them to get out because it would mean leaving their families which most of them seem very dedicated to.<br /><br />When I started thinking about how I am going to carry this idea forward, I did not know what I was going to do. There is little action you can take when trying to help these innocent children without actually flying there and doing something (which trust me, I would in a heartbeat if I had enough money for a plane ticket and a plan for how to get them all out). But then I realized, carrying something forward does not only imply taking action on that specific thing. It can also mean carrying it forward into your own life, into the lives of those around you. To carry the message I have received from <i>Born into Brothels </i>forward, I plan to spread awareness. I had no idea that this horrifying crime to innocent life was happening anywhere in the world before we watched this documentary. I cannot imagine how many of my friends, family and people I work with have no clue about this issue either. It scares me that something of this magnitude could go on for so long, maybe not unnoticed, but sure as hell unattended to.<br /><br />In a perfect world, I would love to bring all of the children and their mothers out of the red light district and into warm loving homes in the US but that would be culturally unsound. I also believe that it is wrong to take people out of their culture forcing them to adapt to a new one. So in the second most perfect (and a little bit more practical) world, I would want to just bring all of the children to America or just away from the red light district, and find them homes so that their children can have healthy, happy futures.<br /><br />"You don't have to be great to get started. You just have to get started to be great"<br />-Les BrownElyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-1606822505355731852010-10-19T21:12:00.000-07:002010-10-19T21:12:03.615-07:00Metacognition: QE EssayThroughout our first quarter essay, me and the rest of my eighth period humanities class were given a very strict structure to follow. Whether this made things easier or harder, I am not sure yet. But I am about to figure it out!<br /><br />So basically we had to write the essay in three sections and hand them each in separately and then all together at the end. As I am a very logical and math brained type of person, I started off the essay thinking that so much structure would help me a lot with the issues of creativity that I usually had while writing and essay (not to mention that I was writing about the obstacles of creativity) but back to the point; structure is my thing. I am fairly disorganized so when structure is handed to me, I pounce.<br /><br />The amount of structure given to us ended up being both a good and a bad thing though. On one hand I was able to finish the whole paper without feeling too rushed because I needed to have the other parts finished ahead of time, but on the other hand I felt that my creativity was being completely blocked out because we were being made to write a certain way. I guess my brain works different than others because I have almost never started a paper from the beginning. I always work from the middle out. Get the meat and bones of the paper and then decide what I want to introduce it with so i can make it as relevant as possible. With the way we were asked to turn in our papers though, it would have been nearly impossible to do this.<br /><br />I must also add that trying to be creative about writing a paper about creativity is much more difficult than one would expect because you end up analyzing everything too much because it is what you are writing about in your paper!<br /><br />As I tried to relay in my paper, creativity can take time. Sometimes when you get a spark of creativity it can be amazing and you can just drill everything out in a short amount of time. But other times it takes careful thinking and analyzing. I am not going to lie- between work, after school activities, and all of the other homework I have, I frankly just have no time to sit and analyze the amount of creativity I am about to put in a paper. I wish I could have made it the best it could be, but it is discouraging to write an amazing paper when you have hours worth of math homework sitting on your other side.<br /><br />Overall, I enjoyed writing the QE essay. I wish it had a little bit less structure, but after analyzing how much stress I've had in the past couple of weeks, I don't think I would have made it through the whole thing without it.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-81942621850548977642010-10-08T11:12:00.000-07:002010-10-08T11:12:18.126-07:00Blogging Around<strong></strong><br />First, I decided to take a gander at Becca's blog. As I suspected Becca was able to easily find the deeper meaning to the music we listened to in class the day that we actively listened to the beautiful piece of music. When she blogged about it she was able to not only capture the emotions of the music but also her own emotions as she listened to it. <br /><br /><strong>This is what I posted on Becca's Blog:</strong><br /><br />Hey Becca! <br /><br />It was very interesting to me to find out that you did not pay attention to music as closely as you do now. I always thought of you as one of those types of people that got carried away by music. From reading your blog though, it seems that with Mr. Allen's influence you have now been able to do that! I have to agree though, usually when I am listening to music in my car or while doing homework I am not actually paying attention to what is going on in the music. Not just the lyrics but what the artist is trying to convey by the whole tone of the piece. I also agree that when I do end up taking the time to pay attention to what I am listening to I enjoy it so much more. I can tell you have a deep appreciation for music and I remember after this lesson in class you were very excited about taking it further into your regular life. Reading your blog was almost poetic, like a song.<br /><br />-Elyse<br /><br />Next, I <span style="background-color: white;">wanted to see what brilliant work Nicole came up with. I have read some of her writing in the past and knew she would have something great to say in her blog. When I saw that she wrote about The Sea of Information article we read I immediately wanted to find out more because I enjoyed it a lot. She wrote about how the article inspired her to find the deeper meaning of things in life and not take reading for granted because there is always something you can learn from a good piece of literature. </span><br /><br /><strong>This is what I posted on Nicole's Blog:</strong><br /><br /><br />Nicole, <br />Just by reading your blog I can tell you are a very careful reader. That is something that I tend to struggle with a lot because I try to read things fast and not take in the meaning of the reading enough. With that said though, I completely agree with your point of view on the The Sea of Information passage that we read. It was so different than many other things that we have read before and inspired me to take more time in life to think about the little things. You noticed a lot of small details that I would have never noticed without reading your blog so thank you for the insight!<br />Elyse<br />P.S. your ultimate goal in life is very inspirational!Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-65577066486261006142010-09-26T21:38:00.000-07:002010-09-26T21:38:41.568-07:00Metacognition: First Mindbook PageAs like any other high school project, I had waited to even start my first mindbook page until midnight the night before it was due. Mind you, we had almost a week to complete the simple task, but had I taken advantage of the other 99% of the time we had to do it? Nope. As I sat in my room contemplating why I had waited so long instead of getting a move on and getting things done. I finally got my second wind of energy and was able to begin the creative task.<br /><br />This is when I realize, "I am actually extremely creative late at night!" YOWZERS! I start cutting and pasting and coloring and writing and everything is flowing together beautifully without me having to think twice about it. Which is when I come to my second realization, "maybe.. if I fall asleep right after I get home from school and then wake up around 11 and do all of my homework I will actually pull out more creative and quality work!" Which would have been a feasible idea if it were not for the massive blue bags under my eyes the next morning and the agony I felt as I lifted my head off of the pillow. I could not have been more proud of the creativity I had embarked upon the night before and also more remorseful that I had chosen to stay up so late.<br /><br />I just wish that I could harness that creativity and use it whenever I would like to, but I can't. Why does it take a weak brain to create such a beautiful mind?Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-33629463089334679982010-09-19T19:43:00.000-07:002010-09-19T19:43:25.017-07:00Best of Week: Writing College EssaysCollege essays. Two words that bring teenagers so much stress and are supposedly actually very simple. "Just be yourself", " talk about what is important to you", "they read thousands of these, so yours has to stand out". So much pressure! For some reason, at least for me, it is so much easier to just write what i think the admissions person wants to hear. But after all I've heard,I realize that if i do that then they really might admit me for the wrong reasons. So then i think to myself, "What is something in my life that made me who I am" and twenty different scenarios come to mind but none of them more defining than the last. This leads to confusion which in turn just leads to much, much more stress. <br /><br />But you see, this is where Mr. Allen comes in to the rescue! This week in Humanities class the most important day was the day we finally learned how to write these stressful college essays. Although we did not learn literally step by step how the structure of the essay should be, we learned something that in my eyes was much more important. We learned how to focus our thinking and choose a subject to write about that is important to us and gives the admissions person the feeling that we are real people and not just another kid trying too get into college. I know that the information I learned that day will help me progress to my future. In twenty years I will remember that the reason I got into the college I wanted to get into was because of what I learned from Mr. Allen about writing essays.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-78967031906098522752010-09-15T17:53:00.000-07:002010-09-15T20:32:47.119-07:00Connection: The Talk of the Town and Conflict Resolution ClassIgnorance. Controversy. Judgment. Radical views- All words that are all too familiar in society today. <br /><br />In Humanities class last week, as a tribute to 9/11, we read a compilation of articles that were written within the first week of the terrorist attacks on America. We were to analyze the articles and search for inconsistencies with what we know are facts today. I realized that people had much more radical views on the attacks and were not as willing to question what they knew. Most of the articles had the same theme of fear for the strongest country in the world. If we were going to be attacked like this, what other catastrophes could happen? The authors all made blanket assumptions about what happened on 9/11creating controversy within our class. Were these people just in shock because it had all just happened a week ago? Or are <br />Americans just&nbsp;arrogant in general, never asking enough questions to get the facts and assuming we are right?<br /><br />The last question is one of the main topics that we discuss in my 'Conflict Resolution in the Modern World' class. Although America is the home of the free and the brave, there are many people here that neither feel freedom nor bravery when they are ridiculed for being different. From articles and media stunts related to what we read and talked about in humanities, immigrants from other countries (specifically&nbsp;the middle east)&nbsp;now feel threatened. In Conflict Resolution we talk about the causes of conflicts such as what we like to call the 'fallout from the 9/11 attacks' (basically the ridicule that middle easterners now&nbsp;see because of what happened that day).&nbsp;Most of my class agrees this ridicule&nbsp;was caused by people not knowing and not wanting to find out the facts of why what happened that day happened. I am not trying to justify the attacks, just protect completely innocent people that do not deserve to be treated as they are. When world conflict occurs and people get scared, they immediately turn to their 'judgment' side. Proof is in&nbsp;the articles that we read in English. There are nine different articles written by nine different authors all having different radical judgments about what happened without knowing the facts.<br /><br />One of my favorite sayings is, "you never know what a person is going through before you take a walk in their shoes". From both of the issues I talked about, I have realized that it seems to be human nature to make judgment before thinking about how the other side must feel.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6053533936175369025.post-14319618955852760482010-09-09T20:19:00.000-07:002010-09-09T20:19:25.275-07:00Change of Mind: My Life as a HouseBefore watching the incredible movie 'My Life as a House', I took my father completely for granted. To me, he was an important man in my life&nbsp;who was essential to my living, but nothing had ever happened that made me realize how much he really meant to me. In the movie, George (the main character) finds out he has three months to live. He decides that he wants to spend the last few months of his life with his son, Sam. Sam is a very troubled sixteen year old who enjoys letting everyone around him how much he hates his life. I am not saying that I am as troubled as he, but everyone has their flaws. Throughout the three months, Sam realizes his love for his father and doing things for others. Once he finds out that his father is dying, Sam's view on life changes completely. It was through Sam's change that I realized that I do not want to wait until my father is dying to be close to him. I've since realized things that my father and I have in common. We both love to debate, over analyze, and pick apart other people's words. <br /><br />Whenever I act like a stubborn teenager and&nbsp;say "I love you" to my mom 'like I don't&nbsp;mean&nbsp;it' she always retorts with, "Elyse, what if i died today and you would always remember that the last thing you said to me was "I love you" and you don't even sound like you mean it". Since watching My Life as a House I have really understood the importance of making a lot of the things&nbsp;I say to my parents meaningful because if anything ever happened to them&nbsp;I would not want my last memory with them to be an arrogant statement.Elyse Bandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04689320847927793417noreply@blogger.com1